Archive for the ‘Around the NHL’ Category

For the 3rd year, the NHL season will kick off with two games played in Europe. The Miami Herald broke the news yesterday. The Florida Panthers are amoung the teams headed overseas and will play the Chicago Blackhawks in Helsinki, Finland. The Detroit Red Wings will take on the St. Louis Blues in Stockholm, Sweden.

193 players filled it out and turned it in, that’s roughly 6 players on each team. Or we’ll just pretend, anyway. Some Stars players made it into the mix and some answers I swear had to be a joke.

Who is the best leader in the NHL?
Most answered Jarome Iginla, which you can’t really argue. He is quite a good captain. Of course, I think Brenden Morrow should’ve come in first, but he did get 4% of the vote and tied with Alex Ovechkin (and 2 other players but I don’t care about them). Roenacker was also mentioned. Umwut?

Which goalie would make the best forward/d-man?Marty Turco took this one with over half of the vote. Not surprising since he is pretty much the best puck-handling goalie in the NHL. Smitty got 7% of the vote.

If you could change lives with another player, who would it be?Alex Ovechkin took this one with 16%. I’m surprised it wasn’t more, to be honest. Mike Modano got 3% of the vote because he is awesome. Duh.

Which player complains the most on the ice?
I love that Cindy Crosby got 52% of the vote. I guess his reputation of being a cry baby is also in the locker rooms.

Which player would make the best President/Prime Minister?Igingla took this one with 8%. But, Sean Avery with 2%? Are you joking?

You can view the rest of the questions (and answers) at the link above.

Last season, I did a post showing where everyone was after exactly half a season of play, 41 games. I did it again this year. I actually spent about 2 hours getting it all in order last week but kept forgetting to post it. We’re not a few games past the mid-season point, but whatevs. Here is what the standings looked like.

So, this is a tad important. The NHL has moved the trade deadline from March 3rd to March 4th. The reasoning is that there are fewer games played on the 4th. Just an extra day to stress about trades, imo.

Our boy Niklas Hagman helped lead the Maple Leafs to a 6-5 win in the shootout against the Devils last night, by snowing Brodeur. He said after the game he wasn’t trying to get any snow in his face, that it was just a move he’d been trying in practice. Either way, it’s pretty funny and judging by the smile on Brodeur’s face, he thought it was too. Though i wouldn’t be laughing at Hagman’s laser eyes staring into me after the goal.

Literally RIGHT before the game. I’m stuck at work, so am stuck listening to the first and part of the second period on the radio. But real quick:

Fabian Brunnstrom was named the 3rd Star of the NHL this week! CONGRATS YOU PRECIOUS LITTLE SWEDE! If anyone on our team deserves any sort of recognition (and believe me, that is a small list of people who do) it’s him.

In his NHL debut on Oct.15, Brunnstrom scored a hat trick against the Nashville Predators, including the game-winning goal, becoming just the third player in NHL history to score three times in his NHL debut — Alex Smart scored three times in his debut for Montreal in 1943, and Real Cloutier matched the feat with Quebec in 1979. Brunnstrom rounded out the week with a power-play goal against Colorado on Saturday.

Other news, Toby Petersen is out tonight, his wife is having a baby so he had to fly home! Congrats Toby and family!!!

So July 1st marks the start of the Free Agency in the NHL. I for one, am terrified. Not only because Mittens and Hagman have yet to be locked in (get on this HullJack), but this article put fear in me I didn’t know existed.

By no means, do I want Sean Avery even in my city, not even on Harry Hines. Oh Baby Hockey Jesus, please do not allow this to happen.

I still have a few things up my sleeve, all of which you will discover in good time (in time my pretties, in time). I’ll probably keep somewhat updated on the Stanley Cup Finals. I would recommend getting the most up to date info, recaps on the Final games between the Pens and the Wings at The Pensblog. I mean, it’s what Gary Roberts would do so it should be good enough for you.

I’ll probably play around with the layout a bit this summer, so I’ll apologize now if at some point you come on and it looks extremely weird. I’ve also taken the stats off the top bar (which I’m sure you noticed), figured there’s no use in keeping them there now!

Sometime this week or this weekend I will begin my series of My Favorite Things of the 2007-08 Stars Season. I’ll post one thing every day until I’m out, so I don’t know how many I’ll come up with. We’ll see.

Also, if you can’t decide where to watch the away games for the series with the Detroit Red Wings, have you thought about AT&T Plaza? They will be holding watching parties (and it’s free) so you should come out! I’ll be at a few, so feel free to drop me a line if you will be attending. (theshootoutblog [at] gmail [dot] com)